Comix Inc. President Nobuhiko Horie Interview (February 2017, 2)-THEME28 | Comix Inc. Corporate Site

THEME1

What should be exported is not the work but the grammar of manga making.
"The aspect of being an editor's research institute and a manga research institute is becoming stronger."

What are you currently focusing on as Coamix?

Horie:: The company as a whole is working on training editors.Now we are focusing on thoroughly refining the editing skills of our staff.

The characteristic of Coamix is that it only has a business related to manga.

Horie:: We have been making manga for a long time.I myself have been doing it for about 40 years.Therefore, you can accumulate editing technology.Therefore, I think that the aspects of "editor's research institute" and "manga research institute" are becoming stronger now than publishers.

Is it "research"?

Horie:: In fact, by collaborating with a research team at a certain university, we will conduct research on human emotional mechanisms, brain waves, biological reaction experiments, etc., and make efforts to scientifically verify the manga that is really sought after. We are.

Is it the task of incorporating systematic logic into the process of making manga by manga artists and editors?

Horie:: that's right.Ask for reason in everything and put it into words.It can be explained in words.It is very important for editors to hone their words. I think it is necessary to be able to give advice on drama making based on proper reasoning rather than "intuition."

That's why you're focusing on training editors.

Horie:: The reason is that Japan should export to overseas not the manga work itself, but the grammar of manga making.Therefore, it is very important to have the skill to understand the grammar and explain it in words.

What exactly is the editor's technique?

Horie:: For example, the feeling of happiness and emotion that human beings have comes from being very innocent.Happiness is a stress-free state.If there is something I'm looking forward to, I'm very happy.My work is working reasonably well, and I don't have any trouble eating, and I'm messing around in the living room on my days off and thinking, "What should I eat for dinner?" That is the state of human happiness MAX.

It's not much different from such a trivial matter and when a big dream comes true.

Horie:: Instead of expressing only happiness in a manga work, it becomes a drama by giving it a stressful environment.In the works of heroes, what the hero fought hard and regained is often just everyday life, isn't it?

Rather than drawing a lot of happy scenes, I feel stressed by drawing a lot of suffering, and when I see a small hope in it, I feel happy.It becomes a manga pull and a drama wave.I think the editor needs to know such a karakuri.

Whether or not you have that kind of knowledge will make a big difference in storytelling and advice to writers.

Horie:: In addition, humans have six emotional expressions.Joy, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust, anxiety.In the manga, the emotions are completely deformed and drawn, but it has become clear that these six emotions can be understood universally.Because, in the days when there were no words, humans communicated by looking at their complexion and facial expressions.Since I can understand emotions instinctively, I think that the face of a cartoon character can be conveyed without words.Editors may want to know about such a mechanism.